


Rosemary, That's For Remembrance

by KayleeArafinwiel



Category: The Giver Series - Lois Lowry
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 12:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2151171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayleeArafinwiel/pseuds/KayleeArafinwiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years before the events of The Giver, there was a failure. No one will speak about it in Jonas' day. But what really happened? May be mildly AU. Quadruple drabble (400 words) one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosemary, That's For Remembrance

**Author's Note:**

> Should be no surprises to those who have actually read the book, but I think I fleshed the scene out a little more. May be slightly AU because of embellishment, but I think I have the facts we're given straight.

“It seems everyone thinks this is funny but me.” The twelve-year-old Receiver-in-training, her pale eyes – _blue,_ her father, her _teacher,_ had said – sat stiffly in her chair, her eyes on the man standing beside her. He was one of the Caregivers at the House of the Old, where the Receiver of Memory, her _Giver,_ her _father,_ would have gone before long, if she had succeeded.

She had failed. She had failed _him._

“I do not understand what you mean,” the man – Roberto, she thought his name was, but she didn’t care – said, sounding vaguely puzzled.

“I came in here asking you to kill me,” she whispered.

“Release you to Elsewhere,” Roberto corrected automatically.

“Don’t be stupid,” she snapped, fidgeting with her sleeve. “Only you would be, wouldn’t you? You _know nothing!”_

“I am much older than you, young Receiver,” Roberto replied. He paused, remembering too late that this child was now, albeit briefly, the second-highest ranked person in his community.  “Forgive me for my rudeness.”

“I accept your apology,” was the slightly sarcastic reply, no longer force of habit once her father had trained her out of it. She said it now only because Roberto expected it.

“Is my father – the Receiver – watching?” she asked.

“He has requested to view the Ceremony, and none may deny him,” Roberto replied.

“Very well.” She rolled up her sleeve, tears glistening in her eyes, and looked toward the recording device. “Give me the needle. I will do it. I know how.”

Mildly puzzled, Roberto handed over the syringe, and without looking, she drove the point home, slowly pressing the button that sent the poison coursing through her veins.

“Goodbye, Father,” she said softly. “Rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Remember me when no one else will. Ah –“ She let out a little gasp. “Thy drugs are quick.”

On the other side, the Receiver watched, trembling with grief. He flicked the switch to speak to Roberto as his daughter’s body jerked and went still. “Give her to me,” he ordered. “Do not throw her down the chute.”

Roberto obeyed, wrapping the body in a sheet and delivering it in a box to the Receiver’s annex. He dumped the box on the doorstep, and left as the Receiver collected it.

Alone with his daughter’s body, the Receiver wept. “Rosemary…my child.”

He buried her in secret, watering her grave with his tears.

Someday he would join her. 


End file.
